The Weekly Standard reserves the right to use your email for internal use only. Occasionally,
we may send you special offers or communications from carefully selected advertisers we believe may be of benefit to our subscribers.
Click the box to be included in these third party offers. We respect your privacy and will never rent or sell your email.

Please include me in third party offers.

The directors of the Foreign Policy Initiative, Eric Edelman, Robert Kagan, William Kristol, and Dan Senor, released the following statement on Syria crossing a "red line" in regards to the use of the chemical weapons:

"It is increasingly clear that Basher al-Assad has used chemical weapons in his war against the Syrian people – crossing what President Obama has previously described as a 'red line' for the United States.

"This development presents us with an important choice – the United States must take action now both to prevent further use of such weapons and to hasten the end of Assad's rule. The alternative is to make it clear, by inaction, that the 'red line' was not intended to be enforced. This will encourage further use of chemical weapons by Assad and perhaps in the future by others.

"Other nations, such as Iran and North Korea, will be watching the American reaction closely. If the U.S. government itself declares that a red line has been crossed in the use of such weapons but then takes no action, this may give Iran, in particular, confidence that it can move forward in developing a nuclear weapon without fear of any action by the United States. It may choose to ignore President Obama's repeated warnings that development of a nuclear weapon is unacceptable to the United States.

"This is a critical moment for the Obama administration. We urge the President and his advisers to take the necessary action to save countless innocent lives, deter further dangerous actions by Assad and others, and restore confidence in American global leadership."